Chloroform
by ButterMyButtAndCallMeABiscuit
Summary: [4th in the Cats and Dogs series] Untitled and insecure was how Prentiss felt, and she doubted she could hold it in much longer. Spemily. Literally made this in an hour.


He knocked rapidly, wondering what she had in store, but he already knew that it was Melancholy Day, as he liked to call it. Prentiss, his mistress, his beau, would call him over in a snappy tone, and once he got there, she would be very somber and reminiscent; she would ask him questions while she had a smoke and his head lay in her lap. Reid hated it when she smoked, but her intentions were far from irritating him. She didn't have any at all.

Reid hears her yell for him to enter, and he finds her sitting on her couch, heeled boots still on her feet. She had them kicked up on the table, and, as he expected, she was smoking and jazz quietly buzzed throughout her living room.

"Y-yes, mistress? It's late. You aren't sleep?"

"Do I look like I'm sleep?" She wasn't being sarcastic or snapping, but was instead laughing softly."It's only one." She smiles, glancing at the clock.

He nods, scared as he always was; she was no different than she was on any other Melancholy Day. And she asked the same questions.

"Did I wake you up?"

If he said no, she would sneer and say she probably did, why would he lie to her like that? If he said yes, then she would roll her eyes and say,"Then why did you come over here if you seem so pissy?"

Then came "Do you know how beautiful you are?"

He always said yes to that one. She insisted he didn't, and then explained, in detail, how he was beautiful. He always knew what was coming out of Emily's mouth, Prentiss' mouth, but his mistress had a mind of her own.

Reid could never find an answer to that that would please her. If he thanked her, she would tell him not to get excited, it was just so; that he was beautiful. If he said "okay", she would roll her eyes,"That's all you have to say?" It was always one of those two, but at night when he couldn't sleep, he pondered over what he could say to make her happy.

Next was a string of questions that always, always, he answered "you" or a variant of the sort. Who's his master? Who did he listen to? Who does he love? Who loves him? And so on.

Then she would tell him to stay with her tonight, for them to hold each other until she falls asleep and he does the same.

Reid then sort of felt off. He didn't get the same air from her that he usually did; calm, yet arrogant. No, he felt...like she was timid. Guilty?

"Come here," she said, patting her lap. He loved it when she did that to summon him to her. He eagerly, almost too eagerly, curled up on the couch, his head on her thighs and his legs on the couch. She chuckles, amused."That's good."

He smiles softly, and she takes a drag from her cigarette.

"You want a smoke?"

Reid blinks. That was unusual, and he had no planned response."N-no. I don't know how."

Prentiss smirks."Don't know how?"

"No."

"Okay."

"Why do you smoke?" He says, stepping his boundary just a bit to test the waters. She despised it when he questioned something she did.

Prentiss shrugs."I started when I was seventeen, shit blew up from there."

Reid nods against her lap."Nicotine is highly addi-"

"You're beautiful," she says, and he felt as if they were back on the usual script now, but this wasn't a question. Something was amiss.

"Thank you."

"You say 'thank you' like you know you are." Prentiss furrowed her brow."Why do you let me, the other dogs, anybody who dominated you, why do you let them if you know you are?"

"Know I am what, mistress?"

"Beautiful," she says, eyes glistening.

Reid blinks. He didn't have an answer for this question."I-I-I don't know."

"You do."

"I don't know, I just-"

Prentiss' eyes grew dark, and her face twisted in irritation."You do know, and you're going to tell me."

Reid needed to come up with an answer. Sure, there was a reason, but...she had never asked this before..."I...I don't know how to explain it."

"Try!" She barks.

"I feel bad." He squeaks.

"About what?"

"My mother. I feel like leaving her, in Nevada like that...I need to be punished," he says meekly.

Prentiss looks down at him."Hmph." He couldn't read that. Was that disapproval in her tone? Surprise?

"May I ask a question? Why did you start at Cats and Dogs?" He says quietly. Reid could tell that she wasn't listening, she was thinking deeply.

"Is that why you let me?" She whispers."Because you feel you need to be punished?"

Reid felt this was one of her shaming tactics, but then the feeling disappeared. She was feeling ashamed, not trying to make him feel shame.

"I..."

"I started there because I knew that deep down, I'm nothing. I have no authority over anybody. I'm insecure, I'm unsure of myself, I know that I'm everything my mother isn't. She got the confidence and the...the grace and poise and I'm just...Emily. And seeing you, so willing, so submissive and..." She shakes her head, lacking another word."...I just knew that you weren't weaker than me. You were better than me. And I was convinced I could break you down until I felt like I was...like I could control _something_. And you let me. Why do you let me? I'm no better than any of those bullies that tortured you in school. I'm worse. And you make me feel awful because you don't hate me. And then I feel worse, and I take it out on you, and then I feel even worse because you don't hate me for that."

Prentiss' voice cracked with emotion. Reid looked up into her eyes. She had long ago put her cigarette out, and she had her face in her hands, crying silently.

Reid sat up, taking her into his arms."I let you because I know it's hard." He mumbles into her hair."I will never feel the pain you're feeling, but I know it's hard."

She cried into his shoulder, and then he saw _Emily Prentiss_. He saw what was underneath her exterior, and he saw all that she had bottled inside, all of the things that ate away at her, gnawed at her sanity.

"Please hate me, please hate me. I want you to be mad because I deserve it. I want you to yell at me and never talk to me again," Prentiss sobs.

Reid shakes his head, refusing."No, Emily, and I'll stay here and hold you until you get that I could never, ever hate you in my life."

Emily cried her eyes out, cried and choked on her tears, cried and clutched his shirt; she eventually relaxed as much as she possibly could after building herself up to a frenzy, and then fell asleep. He gently pulled them down on the couch, taking his jacket off and tossing it aside. He pulls the folded blanket off of the arm of the couch and spreads it over them.

"Don't go. I'm sorry, don't go," she says, her face still flushed from her brigade of tears. She looked adorable, especially with her pouted lips and sleep-ridden eyes.

"I'm not going anywhere," he says, kissing her cheek."I'm not going anywhere."


End file.
